—33— 



Owing- to the difficulty of keeping the larvae supplied with live 

 wood, Mr. Angelman was unable to successfully rear them to the 

 imago state, and while believing the identity of the insect to be be- 

 yond question at the time, I deferred presenting this description to 

 the readers of Entomologica Americana until I had seen the 

 description and figures of Z. cescula {pyrina) of Europe as given in 

 Kirby's " European Butterflies and Moths," plate 26, fig. 2ab, with 

 which the larva coincided in all particulars. Some empty pupa shells 

 were also found in the branches of the same tree in cavities identical 

 with those in which the larvae occurred. These cavities were some- 

 what enlarged at the bottom, where the pupa lay inclined upward 

 toward the opening through which the imago had escaped. The 

 upper part of the cavities was filled with sawdust excrements solidly 

 packed, the hole being large enough to enable the larva to reverse 

 itself, it having been found "looped" several times. The pupa 

 shells were in such an imperfect state as not to admit of a detailed 



description. 



■ » 



A Waspish Love-Struggle. 



Col. John Bowles, of this city, a reliable observer, and a gen- 

 tleman who takes a keen interest in Nature, tells us of an interesting 

 sight which he noticed last October in Richmond County, Ga. : 

 Walking along a country road with tw^o friends, an animated black 

 and yellow ball as large as one's fist was noticed moving about on 

 the ground. A closer look showed that the ball was composed of 

 wasps; perhaps eight or ten smaller ones and one larger. It was 

 not long before Col. Bowles discovered that the larger one was a 

 female, while the others were all males struggling to mate with her. 

 The female at first seemed disinclined, and held the tip of her abdo- 

 men turned under and out of their reach. Presently, however, she 

 held it out and opened the \alves, when immediately one of the 

 males mated with her. Coition lasted uQt more than ten seconds, 

 and after a few moments another male was allowed access. Mean- 

 time, the whole mass of males continued in the most frantic excite- 

 ment, clawing and biting at the fortunate individual and at each 

 other. They were watched until all but one of the males had copu- 

 lated, when the female, seeming to tire, thrust out her sting and 

 made an angry noise, at which the last male fled. 



Col. Bowles is not familiar with the species of Digger-wasps, 

 but from his description we think this one must have been either 

 Sphecius speciosus^ or Mo7tedula Carolina. L, O. H . 



